Hazara Nation

ANC News

More than 2,000 mainly ethnic Hazaras, many of them livestock farmers, marched through the Afghan capital Kabul Sunday to demand authorities stop nomads from using their grazing lands.

The demonstrators, some of whom travelled to the city from poverty-hit central Afghanistan, alleged that ethnic Pashtun nomads, called Kuchi, are using their pastures for animals to graze on.

"We're demonstrating to demand our rights. We want the government to stop Kuchis grabbing our pastures," a protester named Ahmad Kamal Natiqi told AFP as others shouted "Down with Kuchi."

The Kuchi, estimated to number 2.4 million, move around Afghanistan in search of pastures for the animals on which they depend.

The nomads - leading caravans of camels, sheep and donkeys - are due to arrive in central Afghanistan in coming weeks, moving up from the warmer south in a centuries-old migration.

They are mainly from Pashtun tribes that dominate southern and eastern Afghanistan and sometimes clash with other ethnic groups as they travel.

Armed clashes between the Kuchis and settled Hazaras reportedly left several people dead in central Wardak province last year.

There are fears that low levels of rain and snow over winter will mean drought this year, which would put extra pressure on Afghanistan's farmers.